Project launch mentor Resources

At Project Launch, we support our mentors with structured training, ongoing learning opportunities, and curated resources so you can confidently guide your mentee through the college and career exploration process.

Every mentor receives the Project Launch Mentor Manual annually — a comprehensive guide that clearly explains the mentor role, expectations, best practices, and helpful tools. Mentors are encouraged to read and reference the manual throughout their match to stay informed and aligned.

Mass Mentoring Partnership Tools

Race, Equity & Social Justice

supporting LGBTQIA+ mentees

FIRST-GENERATION EXPERIENCE

"Why Not Us?" -  Being the first in your family to attend college is daunting, but rewarding.

Follow the journeys of four young people—all first in their families to go to college—as they road-trip across the country to interview inspiring individuals who were also first in their families to pursue higher education.

After gaining wisdom and guidance from trail-blazing leaders—including Anna Maria Chávez, CEO of Girl Scouts of the USA, Grammy Award-winner John Legend, and Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz—the Roadtrippers are emboldened to embrace the opportunities ahead and ask “why shouldn’t I succeed?”

TED talks

The danger of the single story – This is a terrific TED talk that consultants had us watch before we underwent our Cultural responsiveness training at MMP. It nicely encapsulates the themes around cultural responsiveness and the danger of stereotypes and assumptions.  They had us view this individually and then debrief this with a colleague. You could very much come up with questions or prompts or find ways to connect this to mentoring and working with your young people.

We need to talk about Injustice - This is an incredibly powerful TED talk in which the speakers eloquently articulates the inequities in our criminal justice system. We’ve used this in a couple of our trainings now to help participants be more critically conscious of institutional oppression. It’s very powerful and there are definitely some good discussion questions that one could use. If there were opportunities to connect the ideas hear to what can happen more locally, that might be one excellent step.

Socialization of Men - At TEDWomen, Tony Porter makes a call to men everywhere: Don't "act like a man." Telling powerful stories from his own life, he shows how this mentality, drummed into so many men and boys, can lead men to disrespect, mistreat and abuse women and each other. His solution: Break free of the "man box."

EQUITY Tools

Ladder of Inference - Every day, we meet people and process our interactions — making inferences and developing beliefs about the world around us. In this lesson, Trevor Maber introduces us to the idea of a 'ladder of inference' and a process for rethinking the way we interact. For cross-cultural work, it can allow us to realize how our implicit judgments are formed and made of individuals of different backgrounds, and how we can be mindful when this occurs.

The Four I’s of Oppression – This is a framework that articulates the different forms of oppression from internal, interpersonal, institutional, and ideological. This can be a useful learning when thinking about oppression, power, and privilege.